Things are collapsing in the last installment of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a world that appears, in this volume especially, as a charged and skewed version of our own. Organizations are failing, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is draining from governments, and pooling in the halls of religious leaders, the vaults of corporations, the control of rioters. "An element is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his post in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and durable are faltering and failing."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that animates this final volume, which picks up where its predecessor concluded. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's concluding venture into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting world he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a world whose terrain corresponds to that of the real world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the people appear and think and behave like us, but are joined by animal souls, beings in beast form; where the heavens are teeming with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, buses are caught and beverages is sipped, and mature professors carry Harrods shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still clearly the prickly and determined protagonist of the earlier books, but more mature, more sorrowful, more careful, less certain. This restraint is intensified by her separation from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to depart in pursuit of that innocent part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an trait which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the incitements of its predecessor, which followed the protagonist undertake a adventurous voyage across the continent and into the mountain region, encountering with marvel and peril on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the religious ruling body, and Pullman's deliciously chilling incarnation of rigid, administrative wickedness – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's relative, who blames her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the role of head of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is set on using his recently acquired influence to broaden the church's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued baby the heroine to safety along a swollen Thames as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in spycraft: he is dispatched to the city to discover more about the antagonist's intentions. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and valuable rose oil which manifests mysteriously to be the origin of a social and financial disturbance emanating out from that area. The substance is viewed by certain groups as a tradeable product, by others as a empirical or esoteric wonder, and by further factions – the zealous "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of evil; an affront that must be eradicated. The issue of where it comes from, what it stands for, and if it should be eliminated or protected is becoming urgent.
As in the first series, the heroine's deeds, and her future, are shown to be deeply connected with the future of the universe
In its predecessor, these narratives ran broadly in tandem. In this final book, they merge. Similar to the original series, the protagonist's choices and her path are unveiled to be deeply woven with the future of the universe. Her personal journey to reunite with her companion and rediscover her vision becomes the central conflict in a broader battle with an authoritarian government which, as such regimes typically do, is seeking to suppress autonomy of thinking, innovation and culture: all the personal, resistant ways in which humans can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The story starts with the finding of a collection of unusual cracks in the makeup of the planet's atmosphere: windows that appear to lead to alternate realities. A particular opening seems to be the point of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The Magisterium, with its leader at its head, designates these openings as a threat to the institution's orthodoxy and aims to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to shift from strict rationalism and return to feeling, nevertheless, her belief that these locations must be protected – that their significance and what they offer is mysteriously crucial – grows. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or whatever we call it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a Blakean conflict between naivety and maturity is established.
Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
